What dreams are made of

/ lundi, mars 29, 2004

A MISLEADING FETAL VIOLENCE LAW
published on 29 march 2004, courtesy of the NYTtimes online...
The law that Congress passed last week making it a federal offense to harm a fetus, distinct from the crime of attacking the pregnant woman, is an attack on abortion rights masquerading as law enforcement.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act provides that an attack on a pregnant woman is now regarded as two distinct crimes, an attack on the woman and an attack on her fetus, whatever its stage of development. Although it exempts legally performed abortions, it also defines a "child in utero" as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." This equivalence between a fetus in its earliest stages and a child sets a dangerous legal precedent.

It is safe to say that no one in the Senate needed to be convinced that attacks on pregnant women are horrific. If the Senate was intent on simply increasing the penalties for such crimes, it could have passed an amendment introduced by Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, that would have allowed suspects to be charged with a separate offense of harming a fetus without granting rights to the fetus itself. Senator Feinstein's amendment was voted down 50 to 49.

Backers of the new law, like Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said unequivocally during the Senate debate that it was "not about abortion," but rather "about criminals who attack pregnant women." These promises should be remembered when the law is invoked, as it inevitably will be, in efforts to scale back or end the right to abortion.

I painted my dreams at 4:37 AM

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